Skywatch #18 - Development Update

Welcome to Skywatch #18!

We know it's been a little while since the last Skywatch, sorry about that! As we mentioned previously, the games development has now reached a stage where we simply have less things to share with you without spoiling many of the features that we've yet to reveal, so we're switching to monthly Skywatch posts. Don't worry though - there's a lot of cool stuff coming soon!For now, we hope you enjoy seeing some of the features that the team have been working on.

UX

First up, here's a look at some of the UX work that our UX designer Ellen has been working on.

Ellen has been hard at work on adding the Gall script to the games UI. She created a font from the WIP Gall script that we shared with you a few weeks ago. Can you decipher the message?

The above images are some of the UX elements that Ellen has been working on. Ellen's been working on adding categories to the UX, so that it's easier to organise different craftable schematics. You can also see some examples of the Gall script on some of the UI elements (WIP). — The above images are some of the UX elements that Ellen has been working on. Ellen's been working on adding categories to the UX, so that it's easier to organise different craftable schematics. You can also see some examples of the Gall script on some of the UI elements (WIP).

Skytravel

Next, we have some updates on ships and ship features. The images below show our WIP ship component damage system.

The images above demonstrate how our damage decals are applied.

The images above show how the damage decals can be scaled based on the amount of damage a component has received.

The above gif demonstrates the damage scaling in motion.

This same damage system can be applied to all components. The image above demonstrates the damage effect on a workbench.

The two images above shows how the damage effects can be applied to engines and figureheads respectively.

And finally, to sails. Sails need a bit of extra work, since the sail fabric needs to tear when damaged.

The following video from Tom show some of the animated impact VFX that can be applied for damage.

Next up, we have a couple more ship interior concepts from our talented Jonathan Betts.

And one of our 3D artists, John Warner, has been taking these concepts and 3D modelling some of the assets included in them, as you can see below.

Some decorations from the first interior concept we shared with you a while back. 3D models of the fur rug, baby Nautilus specimen and some wall lights and panels.

3D models for some of some cave plants, as well as greybox blockouts of stairs and some wall panels/piping.

Here 3 have the textured 3D models for the wall piping and stairs, as well as some cables and a makeshift campfire.

And here we have a 3D model of the stove and utensils shown in one of the concept pieces above.

Finally from our 3D artist, we have some early WIP models/textures of some wall panels.

Finally, we have a few more concept pieces from Jonathan.

Concepts for the Atlas lifter - a device which makes objects "weightless".

Here's a look at how our ships are currently shaping up in the latest builds of the game, after Klaudia completed an art pass on the ship material textures.

The video clip below shows some of the progress we've made with our ship designer UX, specifically in networking changes made in the editor, so that other players in a shared session can see the changes made to a ships design in near real-time.

And finally this week, here's a look at the updated world layout in the latest open development build. We added 20 new islands in this build, bringing the total number of islands in the world to 29.

Island Creator Showcase

We're closing out as always with a look at one of our community created islands.

Shattered Peak by djvirus.

This is djvirus' second island for Lost Skies, and we were super impressed with the profile of the island. As you can see in the second image, the island has been "sliced" through the middle, which gives it a really imposing and signature silhouette when approaching the island from certain directions. Well done djvirus!

And that's a wrap for this months Skywatch. As we mentioned at the start of this post, unfortunately we'll be switching to a monthly cadence for Skywatch for the timebeing, just to ensure that we don't run out of content to share with you all. Don't worry though, we have a lot of exciting content to share with you in the near future, including the long awaited gameplay reveal trailer, which we're excited to share more about soon!

Until next time...